Veronica was my Master's supervisor. In the first year of my course, I was terrified of her. Utterly terrified. Period. By the end of my master's course, I was still terrified of her but I also had deep-seated respect for her. Respect for her intellect, respect for the effort she had put toward making my master's a success and respect for her integrity. Years on, today, the 'terror' is a vague memory that makes me smile, and my respect for her has only deepened. Because she made the effort to try and make each of her student the best scientist she could make of them. It was not selective grooming for only the best of the crop - She pushed the best and the worst of us to all be better thinkers, better problem-solvers, better scientists, better than what we were. And whether she liked us or not, when needed she stood up for us and looked out for us. These days I am writing my PhD thesis and a little while back I was wondering who would feature on my Acknowledgements page. My current supervisors are exceptionally smart and kind people who helped me broaden my scientific knowledge and horizons and my PhD project would have been an impossibility without them (even with them it feels like an impossibility). In my acknowledgements I will thank them and I will thank Prof. Veronica Rodrigues, my Mater's Supervisor. Without her, I might have still being writing a PhD thesis and I might have had broad scientific knowledge and technical skills, but it is only because of her that I am more. I am a scientist. And if that is not a hallmark of a great mentor, I don't know what is. Thank you Veronica. I will always regret not being able to say Thank you to you in person.